Needle comb for yarn cleaners



April 3, 1962 s. FURST 3,027,620

NEEDLE COMB FOR YARN CLEANERS Filed March 17, 1960 PIC-7.2 F761 F763 Unite States atent .0-:

3,027,620 NEEDLE COMB FOR YARN CLEANERS Stefan Furst, Monchen-Gladbach, Germany, assignor to Walter Reiners, Monchen-Gladbach, Germany Filed Mar. 17, 1960, Ser. No. 15,628 Claims priority, application Germwy Apr. 17, 1959 5 Claims. (Cl. 28-65) My invention relates to a needle comb device for cleanmg yarn in coil-Winding and other textile fabricating machinery.

In the fabrication of yarn, particularly on winding machines, the yarn passing from a supply coil onto a yarnreceiving member such as the take-up spool is subjected, as a rule, to a cleaning action. For this purpose, the travelling yarn passes through a gap between a supporting surface and a cleaning member proper, the latter consisting of a serrated comb, a comb composed of a multiplicity of needles, or a jack-knife. If the yarn contains lumps, knots or foreign inclusions which are thicker than the gap width of the cleaner, the cleaner member is moved against the supporting surface and the yarn is cut. While foreign inclusions reliably effect such operation of the cleaner, yarn spots of smaller thickness, as may result for example from the commencement of a spinning operation, may often pass through a slit-type cleaner, a knife-type cleaner or a serrated comb cleaner without causing a closure and cutting action of the cleaner. Such slightly thickened spots, however, do not as readily pass through a needle-type yarn cleaner. Nevertheless, cleaners of the needle type have hardly been used in practice because such cleaners, in the known designs, readily tend to become clogged with lint which cannot easily be removed. These known needle-type cleaners are not selfcleaning but firmly retain any lint or fiber-residue that is not firmly joined with the yarn body and hence is stripped oif by the comb. Since the needle comb is composed of a large number of adjacent needles which are clamped or soldered together, the individual adjacent needle tips form interspaces which become narrower from the point to the base of the tip. This is the reason why lint caught in the interspaces can readily become firmly lodged or wedged in the comb. After such clogging of the interspaces the yarn cleaner is virtually inactive.

It is an object of my invention to eliminate these disadvantages and to utilize the superior cleaning ability of needle-type yarn cleaners without entailing excessive cloggmg.

To this end, and in accordance with my invention, the individual needles of the needle comb are given such a shape at the respective needle-portions that the substantially conical surfaces of two adjacent needle tips form between each other an angle within the range of 15 and 60. The individual conical surfaces at the point of the respective needles may be composed of two cones having different respective apex angles, the narrow-angle cone, in contrast to a known cleaner-comb design, being located at the needle point whereas the cone having the greater cone angle is located at the base of the tip so as to form a transition from the point to the shank of the individual needle. As a result there occur large interspaces between the needle tips whose wedge angle is greater than the angle of friction between the comb and the yarn material and thus unfavorable for clamping or clogging so that lint or other fiber components can only loosely adhere to the needle comb and hence can readily be removed by a current of blowing or sucking air which may continuously or pulsatingly impinge upon the needle comb.

Embodiments of the invention are illustrated by way of example on the accompanying drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a front view of a comb portion comprising ice four needles whose conical tips have a straight contour line.

FIG. 2 is a similar front view of another needle comb whose tip portion comprises a narrow-angle cone at the point and a wide-angle, truncated cone at the base of the tip.

FIG. 3 illustrates a comb portion comprising two needles, in which the cone angle gradually increases from the point to the base of the tip.

FIG. 4 is a side view of a yarn cleaner according to the invention including a needle comb and an appertaining anvil member.

The illustrated needle combs comprise a number of individual needles 1a to 1d, 11a to 11d, 21a and 21b which are rigidly joined together, for example by soldering, and which, according to FIG. 4, are mounted on a carrier structure 5 in the vicinity of a surface member or anvil 3 located in the path of the yarn 6. The tips of the cone needles thus form a narrow gap together with the anvil surface. The yarn 6 passing through the gap is cleaned by the needle comb in the event it contains lumps, foreign inclusions or other irregularities beyond the required diameter. Such thickened yarn portions are then eliminated by the cleaner comb.

In the embodiment of FIG. 1, the active portion of each needle is formed by a cone 2 whose tip angle is approximately 30.

In the embodiment of FIG. 2, the tip portion of each needle comprises a base 2a in the shape of a truncated cone having a relatively large cone angle, and a point portion 2b having a smaller cone angle. The interspaces 4 between adjacent needle tips thus have the appearance of a tent upwardly limited by a roof. Due to the large angle at the base, which may be a minimum angle of about 60 but which may amount up to more than a permanent lodging of fibers beneath the roo is virtually impossible.

In the embodiment of FIG. 3, the transfer from the sharp point to the wider conical base of the tip portion is gradual so that the contour line of the tip portion has a more uniform curvature. Such needles can be produced in a simpler manner than those according to FIG. 2.

The inclined position of the comb on its holder 5 is preferably such that the yarn-engaging surface of the conical tips of all needles on the side facing the incoming yarn forms an angle of approximately 30 at the needle points with respect to a line normal to the anvil surface at the needle points, this being illustrated in FIG. 4.

The invention permits employing a needle-type comb, heretofore of little utility because of the clogging tendency, to a considerably greater extent because the previously encountered difficulties are reliably eliminated. The use of such needle combs affords producing of more uniform yarn material in comparison with the known yarn cleaner devices of the non-clogging type.

I claim:

1. A needle comb for textile yarn cleaners, comprising a multiplicity of needles parallel and aligned in immediate succession, each needle having a generally cylindrical shank portion and a pointed tip portion joined to the respective shank portion, the shank portions of adjacent needles being mutually contiguous, each two adjacent needles having their respective tip portions forming between each other an acute angle between 15 and 60, whereby said angle is larger than the angle of friction between said needles and the yarn being cleaned and whereby clogging of interspaces between adjacent needles is avoided.

2. A needle comb for textile yarn cleaners, comprising a multiplicity of needles having parallel. longitudinal axes and aligned in immediate succession, each needle having a tip portion composed of a narrow-angle cone at the point and a wide-angle truncated cone at the base, successive needles having shank surfaces mutually contiguous at least at the cone base of their respective tip portions, the respective narrow-angle cones of each two adjacent needles forming between each other an acute angle between and 60, whereby said angle is larger than the angle of friction between said needles and the yarn being cleaned and whereby clogging of interspaces between adjacent needles is avoided.

3. A needle comb for textile yarn cleaners, comprising a multiplicity of seriatirn arranged needles having parallel longitudinal axes, each needle having a cylindrical shank portion directly adjacent to and joined with the shank portions of each neighboring needle, and each needle having a tip portion composed of a narrow-angle cone at the point and a wide-angle truncated cone be tween said shank and said narrow-angle cone, said two cones merging with each other and having together a gradually curved contour, the respective narrow-angle cones of each two adjacent needles forming between each other an acute angle between 15 and 60, whereby said angle is larger than the angle of friction between said needles and the yarn being cleaned and whereby clogging of interspaces between adjacent needles is avoided.

4. A needle comb for textile yarn cleaners, comprising a multiplicity of needles having parallel longitudinal axes and aligned in immediate succession, each needle having a generally cylindrical shank portion and a pointed tip portion joined at a respective tip base to a respective shank portion, the shank portions of adjacent needles being mutually contiguous, each two adjacent needles forming between each other an angle of about at the respective needle points and a minimum angle of about at the respective base.

5. A needle comb for textile yarn cleaners, comprising an anvil member having a surface defining a yarn path, and a comb member having a number of needles having shank portions in seriatim contiguous and mutually parallel relation to each other, each two adjacent needles having respective tips joined to respective shank portions at a respective tip base, said tips forming between each other at their bases an angle between 15 and 60, whereby said angle is larger than the angle of friction between said needles and the yarn being cleaned and whereby clogging of interspaces between adjacent needles is avoided, said comb member being inclined relative to said anvil member to form an angle of approximately 30 on the yarn entrance side of said path between the surface nearest the point of said tip and a line normal to said anvil surface.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,703,847 Stiinpson Feb. 26, 1929 1,703,851 Davis Feb. 26, 1929 

